An End
by Tier K
Summary: The story has come to an end, all the cards have been played, the last moves made; there is only one way this tale can end. One: Loki dies. Two: Thor dies. And Thor is not about about to let the world fall to Chaos.
1. Chapter 1

Hello! This is the final two chapters to a collection of short stories I haven't entirely written! You know how sometimes in mazes, it's easier if you start at the end and work backwards? That's sort of what I did with this. So unfortunately, you only have ending. For now.

 **Comments about the story itself** : It is part of a larger work, but is written to stand alone. It does not follow any of the Thor movie storylines, but much inspiration was taken from the characters.

Reviews would be fantastic! It always helps to know what you've done well, or poorly. Without further comment, I hope you are entertained!

* * *

"Be careful, Thor!"

"That child is powerful. I've seen him destroy an entire city."

"Are you sure we can't go with you?"

"I know. That's why I need you guys to stay here." Thor smiled at his friends, "Don't worry, I'll be fine."

All three of them stared at him, their eyes expressing their concern, hope, and fear.

"All right," Erendil said. "Call us if you need backup."

"I will. Thank you, my friends." Thor gave them a last, confident smile, then jumped off the helicopter, parachuting to the deserted city street below.

The air was warm, heavy and still, all life seemed to have abandoned this place. Thor moved forwards cautiously, his gun out and his hammer within easy reach. Three blocks he had walked, and still there was no sign of the person he'd come to capture.

No,Thor thought, to kill. If Loki was found, he'd be killed. Thor had no other choice. Too much damage had been done, and would be done, unless Loki was eliminated. The kid had already proven on multiple occasions that no prison could hold him, and there weren't anymore chances to give. He'd spent all of those. There were no other options.

"Loki!" Thor called. "Don't drag this out! We both know there is only one end to this wearisome story."

"Wrong." Loki's smooth voice cut through the thick air like a sharp knife. A soft thump alerted Thor to the other's presence not two feet behind him. Thor didn't turn around. If he looked, he knew he would see Loki standing slowly from the crouch in which he'd landed, long, dark hair swinging slightly, and a smirk on his face.

"There is never only one option, never only one ending…" He was close now. If he reached out, Loki could have touched Thor. His brother, his friend, his light. But that was all in the past. Now, Loki was nothing more than an enemy. The same as one of the many monsters they'd hunted together. Just another murderer. _No,_ that's not right, Loki amended. He was not 'just another,' he was _the_ monster, _the_ murder. The mastermind behind everything.

He was Chaos.

He was Loki.

"Loki," Thor warned, clicking the safety off his pistol. He hadn't actually thought he'd use it.

"What are you going to do? Shoot me? You've tried that before, remember? You people brought an army to kill me, and where did that get you?"

"Even you cannot defend against a bullet at this range," Thor insisted.

"No, of course not," Loki said, like it was the dumbest idea in the world, "But I'm not really here… Or am I?"

Thor heard the complete silence and then the abrupt return of sound signaling a magical attack, and flung himself to the side, covering his head to protect against the falling debris caused by the explosion.

When the unfortunate building had come tumbling down and the dust was beginning to settle, Loki's voice rang out through the dusty air.

"Do you understand now, brother mine? There are _two_ possible endings. One," the blurry image of Loki that Thor could see through the smoke and dust raised one finger, "I die." He raised a second elegant finger, his image was becoming clearer. "Or two: You die."

The dust settled, and for the first time, Thor saw Loki in all his 5-foot 3-inch glory, trademark smirk and all.

"Ever the dramatic, aren't you?" Thor asked, picking himself out of the rubble.

Loki stopped five feet away and shrugged, shoving his left hand into his jacket pocket. "It comes with the title, you know?"

"Indeed." Thor hefted his hammer, "Well then, Loki, I'd love to talk to you for a few hours, maybe get a drink, and see that stupid drunk smile of yours again,"

"Idiot, we promised not to bring that up!"

"But I've got friends waiting for me back on the 'copter, and citizens who need to come home." He moved into an offensive stance, ready to fight, "We've bantered long enough, prepare yourself, Loki!"

"You forgot to mention the Eagles versus the Jets game tonight. Got to be home by six!" Loki replied, darting to the side and throwing a dagger at Thor's leg.

Thor sidestepped and swung at Loki, who danced back just out of range, and grinned.

"Getting slow, are we? Must be all that chocolate," Loki taunted, waving his hand and sending a hail of razor-sharp shards of ice at Thor.

Thor growled at him and smashed through the ice with a mix of wind and steel, charging towards Loki.

"When has charging in headlong ever worked against me?" Loki asked. Thor roared and smashed his hammer into Loki's shoulder, only to have his illusion vanish, and a dagger stab into his back. Right between the narrow gaps in his armor.

"Damn you, Loki!" he growled, yanking the small, silver knife out of his back and throwing it to the side.

"I'm already damned," Loki replied, "Yelling isn't going to change anything. (Unless you're Eren.)"

"Shut up," Thor snapped, throwing his trademark hammer at Loki.

Loki dodged, all grace and catlike reflexes, and whistled as the hammer whipped past, and smashed into a brick building, all but turning it into brick dust. "And you wanted to hit _me_ with that much force?" He sighed. "You must really hate me." Then he grinned, and leapt up, grabbing onto an apartment porch and swiftly climbing up to the roof. "That dagger you so carelessly threw away, was not only made of enchanted silver and quite rare and expensive, but it was also poisoned," Loki called back. Then he turned, and ran across the roof, leaping over to another roof, and disappearing among the tall buildings.

"What?" Thor asked. He glanced at the tiny silver dagger he'd carelessly tossed aside, and cursed. Of course Loki would have poisoned his weapons. But what kind of poison? How quickly would it act? Did Thor have time to kill his target before whatever was going to happen, happened?

"Are you scared?" Loki asked.

Thor spun around, unable to pinpoint the direction of his voice.

"Perhaps you should call those friends of yours." He hissed the word 'friends.'

"Loki! This is not funny!"

"Really?"

From another direction, Loki's voice commented, "I think it's incredibly hilarious."

"Watching you fall apart,"

"Worry,"

"Fear,"

"Regret…"

Loki's voice seemed to echo from everywhere. Thor spun around, hammer raised. He felt surrounded, and yet, he could see no one.

"Loki! End this illusion! Come and face me like a man!"

"Hmm… No. Where would that get me?"

A flash of color had Thor jerking around, ready to hit whatever came at him. He ended up batting away an ice-spear. The ice shattered, and reformed into a cage, growing and expanding into circle of mirrors, trapping Thor. The warrior growled and smashed a nearby mirror. It shattered, only to be replaced by another one. In fury, Thor smashed through another. He couldn't tell if the ice was an illusion of not. It was confusing, and he couldn't find his way out. His head hurt, and his vision was blurring.

"Hahaha! Really, Thor, how childish! Smashing anything you can touch? I thought you'd grown to have more control than that." An image of Loki appeared in one of the mirrors, and was instantly reflected in all the others.

Thor retreated to the center of what he still believed to be a ring, stance defensive.

"It's all so silly, you know," Loki said, spinning a dagger in his hand. The image was mirrored all around Thor.

"Here we are, family, partners, friends, turned into the most bitter of enemies, all because of some lies," Loki continued.

"What are you talking about?" Thor demanded, anger clearly to be heard in his voice.

"So you never found out? I thought someone would have seen eventually… I guess I overestimated you. But never mind. It all means nothing, now. Lies that were presented so well, all believed them. Humans are so fickle, you know. Happy to believe whatever you tell them, especially if it provides a change in their dull lives." Loki stopped flipping his dagger and flung it at Thor. It hit him in the thigh and stuck, bringing the mighty warrior to a knee.

"If enough people believe a lie, does it become the truth?" Loki sighed, and seemed to slump. For a moment, he looked tired, worn out and sad. "Hmph, what does it matter? Everything will end today." Loki pulled another dagger from a hidden sheath on his leg and ran at Thor, stabbing him in the stomach before Thor realized where he was coming from.

The warrior doubled over clutching the hilt of the blade in his chest. When he looked up, Loki was gone. His own image was all that was reflected back at him.

"Does it hurt, Thor?" Loki asked. "Is it real? Or is it all just an illusion?" His voice was soft, tired, it's usual taunting tone almost entirely gone. It was flat. Empty.

Thor's anger peaked, and he stopped caring. Yes, it hurt to get stabbed, and he was poisoned, probably dying, and maybe everything was a lie, maybe everything was just an illusion, but Thor didn't care.

"That's enough!" Thor yelled. He raised his hammer and called upon the storms, directing all of nature's pent up fury at the surrounding area. The skies darkened, and thunder cracked above, while lightning forked through the air.

"Loki!" he yelled. With his cry, a storm of lightning bolts struck the city, destroying roads and buildings, bridges and homes indiscriminately. Rain poured down, driving away the heat haze and cooling the air. Thor found himself calming down, breathing in the now moving air, relishing the familiar scent of ozone and rain.

Many minutes passed before he moved. Slowly, Thor looked around. Not far away, Loki was pulling himself out of a crumbling building. He was thoroughly soaked, and looked small and pathetic, clutching his left arm and limping across the destroyed road. Head down, no trace of his smirk to be seen.

"Loki…" Thor hardened his heart. That was a monster. Not his brother. Not his friend and constant companion. He walked forward, head high, shoulders squared, ready to finish the job.

Loki stopped a few steps away, stumbled, and fell, catching himself on his hands and knees.

"I must look pitiful," he murmured. Loki lifted his head, a tired, wry smile on his face. "Ha, this is ridiculous."

Despite himself, Thor knelt in front of his injured opponent, wary, but not threatening or scared.

Blood dripped down Loki's head, mixing with rain before falling onto the concrete.

"A thousand moments I think of, a thousand memories, a thousand different futures... Yet this is where we ended up." Loki lowered his head. "I'm sorry, Thor."

"We're here because you chose this path. It's your fault, you've no one else to blame. So don't look so pitiful, and don't say such regretful things. You don't deserve forgiveness," Thor replied.

Loki smiled. A truly sad smile, and said nothing.

"It all ends here," Thor said. He raised his hammer. "Goodbye, Loki."

The hammer fell, he felt the blow connect.

Through blurry vision, he saw Loki's body fall. A thousand moments, a thousand memories, a thousand futures.

"Loki…"


	2. Chapter 2

An eternity, he felt, had passed. An eternity without Loki. Without the person he'd had beside him all of his life. Without his smiles, his smirks, his laughter, his quick wit and silver tongue.

He didn't cry. He was beyond that. An emptiness he knew he would never fill had manifested within his soul.

And then there was nothing.

No sound, no pain, no heart-rending anguish. Just… Black nothingness…

"Thor. Thor! Thor!"

Thor opened his eyes, groaning as the light assaulted his corneas. He blinked and slowly sat up.

"Thank the Norns you're okay! We thought you'd died!" Lissa snapped.

"We called you, why didn't you answer?" Ari asked.

Thor blinked slowly at them, trying to remember. He was lying on the road. The storm had gone, he was missing his shirt, and wrapped in bandages. Three shiny daggers lay next to him.

Loki's daggers.

Loki.

Thor looked around frantically, searching for Loki's body. What had happened? Wasn't there supposed to be some sort of dark energy that was supposed to escape Loki's body after death? Had they successfully destroyed that, too?

"What happened?" Thor asked his friends.

"We only know part of the story," Erendil said. "We could only get close once the storm died down. When we arrived, the city was destroyed, and you and Loki were lying here. The paramedic team checked you both, I'm sorry, but… Loki was still alive when we got here."

Alive? That means…

"Did you kill him?" Thor asked.

Erendil shifted uncomfortably. "I… We did not. Ari checked him, and found no trace of the Chaos entity in him. We don't know why it's gone, but without it… I can't justify killing a helpless child." Erendil looked down at the sidewalk. "He's weak, and harmless right now. We bound his magic with the new system. He's restrained and contained within the truck. Thor, he isn't going to live long in his current state. His fate is yours to decide." Erendil stood up, and walked away.

The decision was made before Thor walked through the truck's heavy metal doors. There was no way he was losing Loki again. He couldn't kill him. He'd proven that when his point-blank attack hadn't killed the already injured boy. Loki was right, as usual, there was another option, but it wasn't the one he'd stated. Thor was going to take this chance, and force his way through to a new future. One where neither of them had to die. Without the Chaos Entity, Loki was reformable. Loki wasn't unquestionably evil. But then, had he ever been?

" _Was it all just a lie? An illusion?"_

Thor shook his head. Thinking too much would just tire him out. It always had. Loki was the one who planned everything and was philosophical and well-read. Thor smiled. And now there was a chance to bring that Loki back.

He shoved open the truck's back doors and stepped into the dim room. Loki was in a cage made of enchanted metal, chained to the bars, completely restrained.

As he got closer, Thor could see what bad shape he was really in. There was blood everywhere, dripping onto the ground and forming a growing pool of red on the bottom of the cage. He bit his lip. That was a lot of blood. Was Loki even still alive?

"Loki?" Thor asked, taking another step.

No response.

Thor continued forward until he was standing right outside the bars. Loki continued to be unresponsive. He didn't move, hanging, half-suspended by his chained arms, half kneeling in the pool of his own blood. His clothes were torn, and it looked like one shoulder was dislocated or completely crushed. That must be the injury from his hammer.

Thor felt a twinge of guilt, and fear. Loki may never be able to use that arm again. More importantly, if he didn't do something quick, Loki wouldn't ever do anything again.

Thor cast around for a first aid kit, and was pleasantly surprised to find a neat box with red potion and one of Ari's magic, healing pearls. If he could set Loki's arm, and break the pearl, it should be fixed. Thor smiled. Ari always knew exactly what to do and when. She had probably already known what his decision would be even before he woke up.

He let himself into the cage and, carefully as he could, removed Loki's shirt. Without the tattered cloth to hide it, the injury looked even worse. Not to mention all of the other marks covering Loki's torso.

Wincing, Thor dumped some water on a sterilized cloth and began cleaning the wound and the area around it. Fresh blood was still flowing, so if he didn't hurry, Loki would bleed to death.

Thor wasn't a healer by any stretch of one's imagination, but he did his best. Loki's arm was indeed only dislocated - he must have hit much more gently than he'd thought, thank the Norns - so he prioritized stopping the bleeding. Bones could be set later, right? After cleaning the wound, Thor broke the healing pearl against Loki's arm and watched as Ari's pale orange magic spread across his body, converging on his shoulder, and glowing brighter.

It took longer than Thor expected, and he shifted anxiously from foot to foot. When the light finally cleared, Loki's shoulder was completely healed. Well, aside from the bone being out of place, and thus his arm being at an unnatural angle. The skin and muscles were completely repaired, and so was the fractured rotator cuff, which Thor hadn't even noticed. There wasn't even a scar to be seen.

Unfortunately, the rest of Loki was still in pretty bad shape. Dislocated shoulder, other arm was bleeding, a lot, lot's of cuts, bruises, burns - he must have been hit by lightning. At least it left cools scars… - and he'd been limping earlier. Deciding that the immediate threat to Loki's life was dealt with, he gently removed the restraints and placed Loki on the floor of the truck.

Loki groaned softly, and twitched.

"Loki?" Thor asked, barely suppressing the panic in his voice.

"Mmm…" Loki mumbled, opening his green eyes slightly. "Am I dying, brother?" he whispered.

"No, Loki-"

"Even if you aren't really here, I want to tell you… I'm sorry. I always loved you. I… Don't want to hurt you anymore…"

Thor grabbed Loki's cold, limp hand and squeezed it, feeling as though if he held on too tightly, Loki's fragile bones would be crushed.

"You never meant to kill me, did you?" Thor asked, close to having an emotional breakdown.

He didn't know if Loki even heard him. Green eyes slipped closed, and Loki smiled, ever so slightly, as if he were truly ready to leave this world.

"No, Loki, stay with me!" But Loki was already slipping back into the peaceful darkness.

"Stay alive until I get back, I'm going to find you help," Thor said, standing quickly.

There was no need to bind him, it wasn't like he'd be going anywhere soon with that body, anyway.

After ensuring Loki was still breathing, he left the truck in search of Ari.

He found her not far away, medical kit in hand, waiting for him.

"You want me to save him, right?" she asked. There was no judgement in her tone. No disappointment or anger. No nothing. There never was. Ari never judged people. Perhaps because she'd been through so much herself.

"Yes, please." Thor smiled. "Everyone deserves a second chance, right?"

"Or perhaps even an eighth…" she said, heading off towards the truck.

Thor laughed, "Yeah, some need that many."

 **Thank you all for reading!**

~ Tier


End file.
